Comparative Politics

B04 - Alternative Visions of Political Identity in Greater China

Date: Jun 2 | Time: 12:00pm to 01:30pm | Location:

Session Abstract: This panel explores the tensions and contestations of national identities in contemporary greater China, to consider ways in which political identities not only (re)produce difference but can also actively reconfigure and challenge existing lines of division. Drawing on case studies from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Tibet, it considers how political actors adapt, adopt, or resist dominant national identities along alternate spatial, social, and political lines. We consider how a range of social actors within the Chinese cultural sphere, including civil society organizations, social movements, and political campaigns, engage with claims of nation. The papers address how different experiences of economic globalization, practices of self-government, migration, and relationships with the official nationalism of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) intersect in the production and reproduction of national and other identities. In so doing, these papers also demonstrate how ‘Chinese nationalism’ is not a homogeneous phenomenon, demonstrating instead the multiple, contingent, and evolving nature of claims of nation in greater China. This includes how ‘foreign’ and ‘sub-national’ groups engage with dominant conceptions of Chinese and other identities, as well as how popular protests and populist campaigns have incorporated nationalist rhetoric and symbolism both to resist and reinforce unequal access to economic and political resources. The papers consider the evolving nature, dynamics, and significance of these tensions as well as possible means of managing or transcending such political divides.

Associational Representations of Canadianness in Post-WWII Hong Kong: The Evolving Diplomacies of Canadian-linked Organizations, Past and Present: Susan Henders (York University)
Abstract: The paper explores how Canadians living abroad represent nation and other collective belonging and values through their associational life and the political significance of this. Specifically, it analyses key episodes in the representative practices of Canadian-linked organizations in Hong Kong from the late 1940s to the present, drawing from archives, interviews, and participant observation. The analysis uses an “other diplomacies” framework (Beier and Wylie 2010; Young and Henders 2012), understanding cross-boundary representations of self and identifications of foreignness as having a diplomatic character, even when the actors are not governmental. The paper situates the diplomatic practices of overseas Canadian organizations within the changing patterns of Hong Kong-Canada migration and the evolution of geopolitics; political economy; policies and political institutions; and structures and relations of power in Hong Kong, Canada, the People’s Republic of China, and beyond. It examines the emergence of such organizations as the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, Canadian University Association Hong Kong; Chinese Canadian Association HK; Canadian Club of Hong Kong, and social media-based groups; it assesses their shifting goals; memberships; norms; activities; power relations linked with class, ethnicity, race, gender, and immigration experience, and their evolving relations with governments and other non-government associations. The paper advances understanding of the nature and political significance of overseas nationals’ associations in eastern Asia’s (post)colonial cities as well as the nature of the associational “other diplomacies” of overseas nationals in what Ho and McConnell (2019) have conceptualized as diplomatic assemblages of non-state and state actors.

Nationalism with/out a Nation? The Rise of “Populist Neoliberalism” and its Nationalist Implications in Post-Sunflower Movement Taiwan: Szu-Yun Hsu (McMaster University)
Abstract: The 2014 Sunflower Movement in Taiwan had derailed the cross-Strait trade deals between China and Taiwan (ECFA) and led to the toppling of the KMT regime in 2016. However, to the surprise of many, the post-Movement era witnessed the rise of a populist trend spearheaded by Han Kuo-Yu – a politician known for both his ultra-Chinese nationalism and pro-cross-Strait economic integration stance – who is also the KMT candidate for the 2020 presidential election. To address the puzzle, I deploy the concept of “populist neoliberalism” and examine its entanglement with nationalist politics in Taiwan: First, I review the literature on “economic nationalism,” arguing that such an elite-oriented, top-down agenda has prevented us from recognizing social groups who have largely been absent from the narratives of Taiwan’s economic success (or its demise). Second, I analyze the trade liberalization initiative promoted in the ECFA propaganda, focusing on the ways in which it invoked these social groups as the “neoliberal economic subject.” Lastly, the paper proceeds to unpack Han’s attempt to re-invoke and galvanize these heterogeneous bases. By pointing out the similarities and differences in their targeted groups, rhetoric and mobilising strategies of the political alliances between the pre- and post-ECFA era, this paper argues that populist neoliberalism continues to prevail in the Taiwanese society. More importantly, it re-articulated with and reconfigured the old-fashioned “Chinese nationalism” to produce a nationalist politics without a nation.

Territoriality in the People’s Republic of China: Spatializing Power and Reframing the Question of Tibet: Tashi Rabgey (George Washington University)
Abstract: The outbreak of unrest in Tibet in 2008 and Xinjiang in 2009 marked a new phase of Chinese public debate in the People’s Republic of China on what is now often termed ‘the ethnic problem.’ This paper argues that the reframing of the Tibet issue, in particular, from one of contested nationalisms and contending politics to one of ‘minority rights’ has left the territorial, or spatial, dimension of the unresolved politics analytically obscured. The analysis draws on published studies and literature by PRC scholars to demonstrate that the application of the normative liberal discourse of minority rights and multiculturalism in the context of an authoritarian state like the PRC leads to conclusions that undermine the premises of liberal political theory. As an alternative, this paper explores the framework of governance as a mode of discourse that offers an approach that foregrounds ‘territoriality’ within the PRC. The paper will explore recent governance research in the PRC that provide an empirically-grounded account of the growing regionalization of policy-making processes, regulatory systems and public demands across the PRC. This in turn provides a new analytical standpoint from which to index centrifugal patterns in the Chinese state that have developed throughout the era of market reforms. The consequent emergence of territorial policy communities and the potential for rescaling governance points the way to an alternative rationality and mode of discourse for the discussion of Tibetan interests in self-governance within the framework of the People’s Republic of China.

Contesting Visions of the Nation: Visual imagery in Taiwan's Sunflower Movement: Robin Verrall (York University)
Abstract: My paper examines the contestation of national identity in visual materials used during the 2014 Sunflower Movement (SM) in Taiwan. Specifically, I use a visual semiotic analysis of protest imagery which incorporates the Republic of China (ROC) flag to explore how the putative legitimacy of ‘the nation’ is transferred from the government to the protesters. I also consider the historical context of symbolic competition in Taiwan and discuss the significance and challenges of this trend of appropriating rather than rejecting ROC symbolism. Although the SM was not a nationalist movement in the traditional sense, participants made extensive use of national symbols such as the flag to legitimate their actions and to criticize the governing Guomindang (KMT) party. Unlike previous generations of social movements in Taiwan, overall the SM embraced and appropriated the symbols of the ROC, rather than rejecting them as fundamentally intertwined with the KMT and Chinese national identity. This change in symbolic contestation indicates a subtle but significant shift in how national identity in Taiwan is understood and mobilized for political ends. It also demonstrates how contextual factors may radically alter how such symbols may be interpreted, highlighting the importance of interpretive methodologies in the visual analysis of political communication.